Yie Ar Kung Fu was released by Konami back in 1985 for slot machines. In Russian, the name reads approximately like "Ii (long I) A Kung Fu" and is translated from Chinese as "One, Two Kung Fu". By the way, the thought arises, is it not from here that the famous "kiya" came from, which is shouted in all Chinese action films of the past (and probably the current one too) century.
The game is a level-by-level passage of one-on-one battles. The player controls the protagonist, a young and short kung fu fighter named Lee (Lee, 李), who has to successively defeat a number of fighters with a variety of styles and weapons with his bare hands: a pole warrior, a fire thrower, a chain warrior, a ninja, a sumo wrestler . After defeating a fighter with a chain, the player goes to the bonus level, where you need to reflect the knives flying at him with blows. After defeating the sumo wrestler, Lee kicks a jumping gong hanging in the arena, marking the transition to the next level, where he will have to fight against the same but more skillful opponents.
The genre of the game is an endless two-dimensional fighting game one on one with the enemy. You can play both alone with a computer, and together, "passing" the game in turn. The only character available to play is your protagonist WulongLi.
As such, there is no story in the game, it is only mentioned that you need to fight with a certain number of fighters (11 in the arcade version) in order to receive the title of Grand Master and honor the memory of your father, apparently also a famous fighter. The main character in the original game is called Oolong (Wulong), but in the American games his name is mysteriously changed to Lee (Lee). By the way, Wulong is a type of Chinese tea.
The historical value of this game is that it was the first in many aspects that other fighting games then adopted. These include such innovations as health bars, various figures and styles of opponents fighting, fight to the knockout, sound notification of low health, several victory poses, and even the presence of female characters, even if only as opponents ... From more transparent borrowings in Buchu's first opponent, you can see the prototype of sumo wrestler E.Honda from Street Fighter II, and in a woman in a sexy red dress throwing fans, the prototype of Mai Shiranui from SNK fighting games.
For the whole variety of movements, only eight positions of the joystick and two impact buttons are used - with a hand and a foot. In total, sixteen different movements are obtained in total, eight by hand and foot. In fact, usually no more than half of them are used, since the most advantageous tactic when playing with a computer is Hit & Run, that is, delivering single blows and quickly moving around the battlefield. It should also be taken into account that after a hit, the fighter freezes for about one second, which opens up wide opportunities for a counterattack.
There are only two battlefields in the game. The first background is a picturesque location with a waterfall, where the first five fights, united in "Hot Fighting History", take place. The second background is the area with the temple, where the remaining six battles take place, combined in "Masterhand History". The fields do not differ in anything except the picture, so let's take a better look at the fighters...
As mentioned, there are eleven of them in the original version, including two women. Enemies with weapons are named according to what they fight with.
- Buchu (Buchu). Fat, bald, slow, unarmed. He likes to fly like a swallow, but he does it from afar and quite high, so it was hard to dodge this blow;
- Club (Club). Armed with a club and a shield. The difficulty of fighting this opponent lies not so much in the strength of his blows, but in the ability to block most of your attacks. He also does not stop after his attacks. The best tactic is low kicks with a little lead;
- Fan (Feng). The second girl you will meet at the tournament. In addition to the usual blows, he uses fans, throwing them along a complex trajectory. They can be knocked down, but it's better to jump over. The best tactic is to try to jump over her while she throws the fans, take one or two hits and jump away from her;
- Sword (Sword). Pretty tough opponent. The attack radius of the sword is smaller than that of the chain, but the attack speed is much higher. Usually calculates where you land after jumping and waits for you there. The best strategy is to time your shots correctly. The main task is to learn how to approach and hit him before he tries to hit you. After some training, it is quite possible to learn how to determine the time required for a strike;
- Tonfun (Tonfan). Armed with tonfa - these are things similar to police batons, only wooden. Quite fast, but has a very small attack radius. The best strategy is to try and corner him. Since after the blow the enemy tries to run back from you as far as possible, then continue to beat him, driving him into a corner, where it is quite possible to inflict three or four blows on him before he hits you;
- Blues (Blues) (Bruce?). The apotheosis of all battles in the game. Since Blues is practically a copy of you, he uses the same techniques as you. But he is much faster and it is not uncommon for situations when you are driven into a corner and make a series of four or five hits in a row. It is difficult to give advice here, the main thing in a fight with him is to move a lot and prefer punches.
After defeating the Blues, you are declared the winner and the game immediately starts over again, with Butch...
The FamicomNES, MSX and GameBoy versions of the game are completely different from the other versions of the game. There are only five opponents left, but bonus levels have been added. It is in these versions that your protagonist is called Lee (well, the stereotype is the same). And in general, there is an opinion that in this game all the changes were subject to political correctness - there is a woman, a Negro, an Asian and a European ... Unless only a disabled person is missing, but Tao may well claim this place.
- Wang (Wong). Like all opponents in this version, he is fat and bald. Looks like a fighter with a stick (Pole) from the arcade version. Very slow. Sometimes he can kick, even if before that he raised his stick to strike. It is most quickly killed by blows in a jump;
- Tao (Tao). Faster than Wong, but also quite slow. Can spit fireballs that can be knocked down or jumped over. Avoid his spit and jump kicks and he won't live long. As an option - wait until he comes up and just kick him;
- Chen (Chen). Oddly enough, this is a black man. An analogue of the chain fighter from the arcade version of the game. True, unlike him, he will often try to come close to you to hit. The key to defeating him is the correct calculation of the trajectory for the jump. You need to jump over his chain during the strike, land next to him, take a couple of hits and jump back;
- Lang (Lang). The only girl featured in this version of the game. It is an analogue of Star, respectively, the weapons used are asterisks. Aside from avoiding the stars (or knocking them down for extra points), a winning tactic like on Tao is jump kicks;
- MuWu (MuWu). It is a faster version of the arcade Buchu. Can fly just like him. To win, concentrate on punches to the body. After defeating him, you will receive a blow to the gong and another cycle of battles with the same fighters.
The added bonus level is aimed at scoring extra points. In it, a variety of throwing weapons fly at you, which must be beaten off.